


For the Love of Mike

by bennysburgers83



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 13:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18965839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bennysburgers83/pseuds/bennysburgers83
Summary: They told her she was doing a great service for her country. She wasn't doing it for her country. She was doing it for him.





	For the Love of Mike

“So basically El” Hopper pulled another swig from his coffee cup and rubbed his face “What the man is saying is that the government, the real government, needs your help.” El scrunched her face at Hop then to the man in the army fatigues to her right. 

The man, Jameson read his name tag, looked to Hop with raised eyebrows and searched Hops face for an answer. Hop was mid cigarette pull when he realized Jameson was looking to him for some help with El. He looked to El for a moment, surveying her face, like he was trying to decide the next move.

“Oh” Hop looked at El and back to Jameson, “Major, If you need her help, you’re gonna have to explain to her about why you need her.  She will trust you more if you tell her the truth and believe me, she’ll know if you lie to her so……I wouldn’t.” He relit his cigarette, winked at El and leaned back in his chair, nodding to Jameson to start talking. Jameson watched Hop for a minute, no expression on his face but an intense scowl. Jameson rubbed his eyes and turned his gaze to El.

 “Miss Hopper.” “My name is El” Jameson seemed surprised to hear this name come out of El’s mouth, most of only seen the file that read “Jane Hopper” El thought. Not the nickname that Mike had given her that had become her only name that mattered anymore.

“Well, Miss El, we are looking for a man named Martin Brenner and we think you can help us find him.”

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El was led out of the security office of the mall, slowly around all the rubble and the chaos that had ended just hours ago. She was flanked on both side by armed soldiers, only person who wasn’t armed was Hop who made it very clear that he was going with El.

“I’m coming with her, especially if you are taking her all the way, Wait, don’t shake your head I haven’t finished talking yet.” Jameson was in fact shaking his head.

“We are only supposed to take El with us and no one else. We have our orders and I don’t have the authority to change those orders Jim. It’s El and only her at this time.” Hop pounded his cigarette out into the ashtray in front of him and pointed at Jameson.

“It’s either I go with her or she doesn’t go at all. You may have your orders Jameson, but that shit goes out the window when it comes to her safety.”

Jameson couldn’t do anything about Hop. He’d made his point and could see that El was sided with him on this. El was still struggling with the idea of helping the army and who they were going after wasn't helping either. With Hop going with her, she at least had someone she could confine in and have explain things to her. She knew what she had to do and if she did it, Mike and all her friends would finally be safe and that’s all she cared about at this point. Thinking about Mike brought a new pain to her already bruised body. Leaving him again would be just as hard as it was the first time and she hoped he understood what she had to do and why she had to leave. She just had to explain it to him. But where was he? She hadn’t seen mike since the guards came for her in the mall. She knew he was ok; it was the first thing she asked Jameson when he walked into the office. Now she needed to find him and she wasn’t gonna be able to do that with these guards around her.

They’d just walked out of the mall and the fresh air hit El like a wave hits the shore. She never thought air could make her feel better, but this was helping. She’d been inside the mall for hours now and the smell of smoke and blood was nauseating. They were told they had a helicopter waiting to take them to Colorado where El would meet the team that the army was putting together to go after Brenner and his men. She hadn’t spoken while Jameson was talking, letting hop ask all the questions, but she had learned what Papa had been doing since that night in the school.

Martin Brenner was taken from Hawkins Middle to nearby Hawkins Medical and treated there until he was airlifted to some hospital in Indianapolis. From there he spent 14 months in the ICU until a week ago, he miraculously disappeared. He had just gotten out of bed, took out his IV and walked out of the hospital. Or at least that was what the media told everyone. What really happened, said Jameson “Was bullshit straight out of a Bond movie.” Five men walked into the hospital, killed 2 nurses and then 6 men walked out. All cameras in the hospital “Mysteriously” turned off around this time and the only way they had this info was thanks to the patient across the hall from Brenner, who had decided to go to the bathroom at the exact time the men had come for Brenner.

Hop wasn’t notified because there wasn’t a reason to, Jameson declared, seeing Hops face turn a shade of red. “WE didn’t see any reason to raise any alarm. We were pretty sure that he wouldn’t come back here and we were right, he didn’t. but what we didn’t know was that he had been in contact with someone else. Kline.” Hop leaned back in his chair and let a small chuckle “That fucker……knew there was something about him from the day he got elected.” Jameson nodded and opened a file labeled “Kline” on it. “So it seemed that Kline and Brenner went back many years, before El was ever born and before El’s mother was brought into his program. We didn’t know about it till it was too late. That one……..That one is on us” Hopper was out of his seat now, slowly pacing around the room.

 “Oh so this one is on you? Brenner being allowed to kidnap and experiment on women and children wasn’t on you? That was someone else? Color me surprised.” El hadn’t moved, in shock to hear his name again. She couldn’t breathe.

All she could think about was pa….Brenner. He had been gone from her memory for so long, those spaces taken up by someone who knew how to be a real father. By people she loved. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for just a second. “He no longer has any hold on you El, hes nothing but a man who kidnapped and experimented on you and kept you locked in a cell like a small animal. Well not anymore.” She opened her eyes and knew what she had to do next.

She had to find Mike. She needed to see him before she left. She needed him to know everything.

El stopped in her tracks, the soldiers around her stopped as well and Hop looked to them and then back to El. “Kid, What’s wrong?”

El looked at the men around her and then to Hop. This was either gonna go well or not well at all.

“I need to find Mike, I need…..I need to tell him what’s happening and why I won’t be here. He needs to know Hop.” El’s voice cracked a the end and she could feel the sting of tears forming at the corner of her eyes.  Hop’s expression was of stone while looking at her, she didn’t know what else to do but stare back at him. She could tell he was weighing the options in his head and she thought she saw something that looked like sadness go across his face but then it was gone. He gave her a nod and looked to one of the guards standing in front of them. “I need to find the Wheeler kid captain; we need to talk to him before we go.”

The man Hop had spoken to tilted his head and laughed “We are supposed to get you to that chopper and out of here. We don’t have time to go looking for someone’s boyfriend. NOW, Let’s move huh.” He placed his hand on El’s elbow and tried to move her. She clinched her hands and slowly looked up at the man, eyes squinted but not with confusion, but with anger. Before El could move, Hop moved in between them and placed his hand on the soldiers arm.

 “Couple things here son, If you like your brain the way it is and not coming out of all the holes you have on your face, I’d let her go. Don’t want you ending up like the 8 men and women she killed a year ago. Also, if you like the way your face is, I’d let go of her, so I don’t have to kick your ass. Sound good?” the soldier looked from Hop to El and back to Hop again and immediately let go of El. “I was in the army once, so I know all about orders, so here’s one. Find me the Wheeler kid and you wont have any problems. But if you keep this up, she” He motioned to El. “Isn’t going to be happy so for my sake and everybody else’s, just find him.”

The soldier leaned into his walkie talkie on his shoulder and spoke, but El couldn’t hear him. He listened back for a minute and nodded to Hop and El to follow him. “They are this way, come on.”

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El could see Mike’s leg bouncing from the moment she turned the corner of the mall parking lot. He was sitting on the back of a firetruck wrapped up in a wool blanket. He looked so calm but at the same time, so nervous and scared. El slowed down her walk, thoughts weighing her down the closer she got. What could she say? How would he take this? She knew the answer to all the questions but that didn’t make this any easier. Hop noticed she had slowed down and looked in Mike’s direction. He made his way up beside El and just stood, not saying a word for a couple seconds. He touched her back, getting her attention off Mike for just a moment.

 “Want me to get him for you?” El blinked the tear out of her eye and nodded. She couldn’t walk any further. The closer she got, the more pain she felt. She needed Mike to come to her, to help her, to hold her.

Hop brushed the tear away and kissed the top of her head. El smiled, the closeness of her father bringing warmth and strength she needed right now.

 “You got it kid.”

She watched as Hop walked over to Mike, patted him on the shoulder and leaned down to talk. She the moment Mike noticed she was there, and her heart broke again, and probably not for the last time tonight. Mike nodded to Hop, wrapped the blanket tighter around him and trudged over to where El was standing. He never stopped when he got to her, he just opened the front of the blanket, giving room for her to slide into his arms and he wrapped her in the warmest hug she had ever felt. El could fell his body shaking, but it wasn’t from the night air, it was an oven under the blanket. No, thought El, he was shaking from fear.

 He was holding her as tight as possible but not to the point of hurting her. He was letting her know he was worried but didn’t want to it to be too much for her. “I didn’t know…….I saw them take you and I didn’t know where they had gone. I tried to follow you and yelled for them to bring you back but all they told me was that it was important for them to talk to you and I couldn’t be there.” El tried to talk but all that came out was a whimper. Her body wasn’t letting her speak, failing her one time she needed it the most. Mike heard it and hugged her tighter, hoping to hug whatever was wrong with her away. Neither spoke for several minutes, just basking in the warmth of each other, as they swayed in the night breeze.

“You have to leave don’t you?” Mikes question was like a punch to El’s brain, knocking her for a loop that he could just know what was wrong with her just by being around her. He’d been like this ever since they met. Always being in tune with El’s emotions and facial expressions, reading her like a book he had reread hundreds of time. His favorite book.

She took a deep breath and rested her chin on his chest, eyes darting all over his face, taking to memory the features so that, later when she was by herself, she could see him clearly in her mind. She watched as the night breeze slowly moved the hairs on mikes head, swirly back and forth above his eyes that shown down on to her.

“I have to help them. They need me to leave right now, to go somewhere and meet others. I have to do this Mike; I’m the only one that knows what they are going into. They need me.” Mikes eyes closed and he took large breath, eyes darting below his eyelids. “But…… I need you El. I need you here with me, so that I know you’re safe and where I can see you every day. Why do you have to go? Cant they just go find someone else..”

“I’m the only one Mike. I don’t want to do this either, but if I don’t do this, there’s no telling what might happen to you or to me or to our friends. I’m not doing this for them” She looked around at all the guards and soldiers surrounding them in the parking lot. “I’m doing this for you…..and for us. For your friends.  For this town and for Hop. I need all this and if I don’t help, something might happen to it. I hope you understand what I’m saying. Do you understand?”

Mike’s eyes were wet with tears as he ran his hand through his hair. “I always thought it was cool to have a girlfriend who was basically a super hero. I guess now you are. If you have to go save the world El. Go do it. But just know, if anything happens or you ever need to talk to me, you know how to find me. You know where ill be, like I was last year. I’ll be right here waiting. I love you El…..I’ve been trying to figure out in my head when would be a good time to say that but……guess now is a better time than any.” El’s hand landed softly on Mike’s cheek, as she swam in the black abyss that was his eyes. “I love you too Mike. I’ve loved you since the very beginning.” El stood on her tip toes as she kissed Mike softly. The power behind this kiss told her everything she needed to know about their upcoming time apart. There was a promise there, like their kiss at the Snowball. A promise of always being there and always waiting for the other. A promise of love and hope, till they could see each other again. As the kiss ended, El caught a glimpse of Hop and Joyce to her right, as she turned, she saw Hop slip a hand behind Joyce’s neck and bring her in for a kiss. She smiled as she leaned her head against Mike’s chest. They were both so happy, but yet, they had to leave that happiness to protect it. They had to leave their love behind to make sure that nothing happened to it. They were doing it, El thought to herself, for love.


End file.
